I shared a story last night on my Facebook and thought I might copy it over here today for you! My oldest son passed away in a house fire when he was only three and a half. that was fourteen years ago, he would have been in his Senior year this year and it never gets easier to think on. Today is the anniversary of his death. I miss him so very much and often wonder what he would be like today, what he would enjoy doing and what he would look like. Here's a picture of him taken the summer before he left us:

He was such a precious handsome boy and he always smiled....always! Here's the story that I shared last night, just a memory I had of him and a favor to ask of you:

THE STORY OF THE QUARTERS:

As a child, Joshua, loved "quarters". They were all quarters to him as long as they were silver. Up until this day, I keep my change in what should be the ashtray (I don't smoke so I might as well use it for something) and as soon as he would get in the car, he would peek around the seat and if there was anything silver there at all, he would say "Quarters?!" He always wanted them and I always gave them to him and they would instantly be deposited into his little pocket. For those of you who never had the blessing of knowing him while he was with us, he had a huge loving and giving heart. Something in that little brain of his knew that those baby "boxes" at Wal-Mart or those bell ringers buckets outside the stores or the glass jars that local people sit on the old store counters to help someone in the community meant something. He knew that someone needed those quarters more than him and he always emptied his pockets into them when we passed them. For a little boy who loved quarters so much, he NEVER kept them for himself and he always "donated" them. If we passed a box and he didn't have any quarters, he would beg for them until I found something for him. For months after he passed, I couldn't keep change in my car because I would cry every single time I saw it and today for the first time in years I got tears in my eyes when I saw the change in my car. So I'm asking this of you, if in the next few weeks as the holidays approach, if you pass by a donation bucket or see a food drive take a minute if you're able and donate something, anything with the same carefree giving heart that my little boy had. He never showed greed and he was always willing to give without a thought of keeping it. There are so many people in need in our communities and I hope that if you're able you'll take a moment to share a giving spirit with them! For just that moment, forget the hustle and bustle and the greed in this world and stop to help someone else.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and read. I'll never forget my precious Joshua and I'll never be the same either! Always cherish those you have in your life, you don't know how long they are promised to you! Ciao!

The Nursey Side of Me...

So I've introduced you to the "scrappy" side of my life....let me give you a quick idea of my "real" job. I've been a nurse for ten years, those entire ten years have been spent in one hospital in NC. It's a major trauma center, associated with a college/medical school and it's one of the most wonderful jobs I could imagine.

About thirteen years ago, I decided that I wanted to go back to school but wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do. It was a toss up between teaching and nursing. I guess....really that the only reason I even considered teaching is because it was what my mom had done all of her life and I knew that she had hoped I would follow in her footsteps. Instead, I went the nursing route. When I told her, I'll never forget, it was the ONLY time in my life that she questioned my ability to do something. I went to college and graduated with honors as an RN. I know she was proud of me and that was all that matter....I proved doubt wrong! She passed away a few years after but that's a story for a different day. I hope she knows that I did follow in her footsteps just not in my career. I have her personality and her patience and her kind, loving heart. I would do anything for anyone I meet. I'm sure she saw that in me but I wish she could have stayed with me a few years longer to really see it in me like it is today!

Any who...I applied at the one hospital that I really wanted to work at and was hired straight away to a medical/surgical floor. I worked that floor for the first four years of my career to get my skills in check and just basically to get my feet wet. When the manager that hired me left the hospital, I decided it was time for me to move on to a different focus of nursing. The then manager of our float pool had tried for years to get me on to her staff and I decided to give it a chance. I'm still there today, after three management changes, and still loving my job! I wake up on the days I work and give the supervisors a call to find out where I'm working for the day. There's never any scheduling on specific floors and I never know ahead of time, only the morning of at 5 a.m. I love it like that! There's no red tape, I avoid the drama of co-workers and I get a different experience every single day there. I work trauma one day, oncology the next and I just work my way through all the different areas. If you name it, I can do it. Well, I don't deliver babies....we don't have a birthing area in the hospital which is shocking because of the size and complexity of our facility. We are world renowned but they decided not to put any focus on that. I'm okay with that.

Each day, I have patients that I fall in love with and patients that even though they pick on my nerves, I still have to step back and look at where they're coming from. Of course, there are some days and some patients that I look at and silently think to myself, "What in the heck were you thinking"?! The world may never know, we've all done crazy things, I'm just figuring out some have done a lot crazier than me. I've laughed, I've cried, I've gotten angry and I've loved. I learned a long time ago to never hate, it's just ugly. I always greet people with a smile because you just never know when it might be the only one they see.

That's pretty much my job in a nutshell. I'm a jill of all trades in nursing and I wouldn't have it any other way! I love it and will do it for as long as I'm privileged to work there!

I'll talk to you folks tomorrow, for now, remember to smile...you never know when someone needs it! Ciao!

The Creative Side of Me!

There is and has always been a creative crafty side of me....since I was a child I've enjoyed all things artsy! I used to go in the craft store with my mom and I'd see some pretty display and think to myself, "I can make that" and I'd buy all the supplies and go home and do just that! My mom loved it....kind of like having her own little home decorator! I have also always been one of those people that could sit back and look at something and just draw it and it be close to form. I haven't done that in a LONG time, maybe I should give it a go to see if I still have skills there!

These days, you'll find that I share my creativity through scrapbooking and altered arts! I still do a few other crafty things and am always up for the Pinterest parties that my friends and I have but generally scrapbooking is my art form. I am lucky enough to create for two wonderful designers, Laura Burger and Susan Godfrey. Both ladies were kind enough to take me on when I was back in the digital community after a long hiatus and they just had a little faith in me and I hope that I'm doing them both proud! I also am a Cheery-O at OScraps, a new one, so you'll be seeing me scrap with the designers from there as well! I do also find other designers that I love and I lay down the money for their products so that I can create artwork for them. I will warn you up front that you will usually get longer posts with lots more detail after this one when it comes to my pages so that you can go check out their wonderful designs but for now I'm just going to share a few pages I've done recently with you so that you can see what scrapbooking is all about!

So sorry for the flooding but I wanted to give you a good example of what I do! I love big bold pictures and blending them in but I also love doing pages with lots of photos too! Now, I promise I'll never flood you again, on my honor as a scrapbooker who despises gallery flooders! From this point forward when I share it will only be one or two at a time with some more details on what I used and any tips I used to create it! So you've met the scrappy side.....tomorrow I'll introduce you to another side of me! Until then......ciao!

Getting to know me!

Hi and welcome to my new old blog! For years I used this blog and then took a hiatus so I have wiped it clean and I'm starting fresh and clean on it!

Let me tell you a little about me....my name is Andrea and I go by many labels in life:

• Mom
• Girlfriend (may as well be his wife)
• Sister
• Daughter
• Friend
• Nurse
• Independent Scentsy Consultant
• Cheery-O
• Photographer at Good Life Photography
• Creative Team Member for Designs by Laura Burger
• Creative Team Member for Susan Godfrey Digital Designs
• Digital Scrapbook
• Crafting Queen
• ....and maybe even enemy to a few....who knows!

So those all are just labels but they don't fully describe me. I'm a little wordy, pretty smart, fierce when I need to be but laid back most of the time, devoted, loving, caring, reliable and so much more! When I'm your friend, I'm your friend for life or as long as you want me. If you don't want me I just chalk it up to your loss not mine and keep moving forward. I'm a very optimistic person but haven't always been that way. I have a huge amount of patience which I learned from my mother who was the most patient person on Earth. I've loved and lost, have an ex husband/baby daddy (LOL....that always makes me laugh because I hate that term but joke about it all the time) and as long as he's involved with our son then I have no qualms with him. I have several people who were really close to me in life that I've lost, my mother, my oldest child, my paternal grandfather and both maternal grandparents. I miss them all deeply but I keep trying to improve myself daily to make them all proud of who I've become in life.

What will you find here? I'm going to use this blog for all intents and purposes! I'll be promoting my photography, I'll tell you about all the incredible Scentsy family promotions, I'll be posting all of my digital layouts whether it's for teams I'm on or not. I'll be posting some personal things here but not too much (I mean I have to have something to rant about on Facebook right?). I'm hoping to get back in the habit of making digital freebies for you to use and of course you'll find me making sketches and templates as those are a love of mine and I used to maintain a website dedicated strictly to them!

That's just the bones on me....I'll add a little fat later (trust me I have plenty) but in the meantime if you ever have a question or something you want to know about me please don't hesitate to ask! That's what I'm here for! And trust me if it's none of your business then I'll tell you that too but that would be rare! LOL! Hope you all are having a wonderful well and I'm going to flood in a few layouts tomorrow for you to see my work! Ciao!